Curlew Lake State Park
Perhaps the park I love most!

The recent issue of Washington Trails magazine has some nice features on our state's wonderful (and financially threatened) state park system. I have long advocated for our parks and am one of the system's biggest fans having been to nearly all of our wonderful parks. I even got married in a Washington state park, Curlew Lake in Ferry County. Not surprisingly then, Curlew Lake State Park is one of my favorite places in the entire state. The full piece that I had submitted to the magazine was edited down due to space constraints. Here is the full piece. Enjoy it. And what about you? Do you have a special park near and dear to your heart, too?

Nestled in the Okanogan Highlands of Northeastern Washington just north of the old gold mining town of Republic, Curlew Lake State Park is a long way from the state’s hurried and populated centers.  Consisting of 123 acres of hillsides of golden grasses and groves of majestic mature ponderosa pines along the shore of long and slender Curlew Lake, the park is cherished for its boating, fishing, sandy beach and family friendly camping.  I love the park for its setting in Washington’s final frontier—and its proximity to the Kettle River Range, one of my favorite hiking haunts in the state. Back in the summer of 1996 I enticed my girlfriend, Heather to join me on a camping trip—her first—to Curlew Lake State Park. We spent the days hiking along the lofty lonely Kettle Crest and the nights back at the park hunkered down at our lakeside campsite; where we watched through warming flames of fire, moonlight dance on the lake’s placid waters. We enjoyed morning visits by docile deer and evening gatherings by inquisitive quails. We savored the sweet serenity of the park and fell in love with our special campsite. We returned each summer to the park and to “our” site. In 2006 we were married at “our” campsite and shared our love for this park and region with our families. We continue to return to Curlew Lake. And I continue to extol the beauties and charms of this park to my outdoor loving friends and acquaintances. I made sure to include a chapter on the park’s wonderful nature trail in my next guidebook.

(bottom photo: Craig and Heather at Curlew Lake summer of 1996)

The State of our State Parks: Not good

Below is an open letter from the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission on the state of funding for our state parks. Read it and feel free to comment both to the commission and to your elected representatives. Feel free too to leave a comment here. As most of you know I have been very critical of the way we have been funding (rather lack of funding) our parks for the past several years. I have been deeply impressed with Oregon's solutions for funding their parks and I wish that we can adopt a few of those methods here. In a perfect world it would be nice to have our legislators (with the governor's insistence)fully fund our parks. But it is not going to happen-it didn't happen during our boom years. Therefore we are left with two choices: to accept (onerous to many) user fees or a greatly reduced state park system. I'm willing to pay for our parks-they are too valuable to be sold off or left to languish. Evidently many of my fellow citizens are vehemently against user fees. And while I respect your opinions and understand the principles that you stand on-I ask you then how are we going to keep our parks from being shut down and/or sold? I welcome your solutions-and I hope that we can all weather this economic climate to get our parks through this very trying time.

Governor’s 2011-13 budget moves State Parks off general fund tax, supports user-based fees to keep parks operating

Dear state parks friend,

The start of the 2011 legislative session finds State Parks at a crossroads. Now, more than ever, donations tied to vehicle license tabs are needed to bridge the budget gap, as we potentially move from an agency that relies on general fund state tax dollars to one that may rely primarily on user fees.

In response to the state budget crisis, the Governor’s budget makes dramatic reductions in basic health, social and education programs and in the mix proposes a reduction of 70 percent of the agency’s general fund tax support in the 2011-13 biennium, which begins July 1, 2011. This would leave $20 million in one-time tax support to help the agency transition to a funding base built on new user fees. Then in 2013-15, there would be no general fund tax support, and State Parks would rely on user fees alone. In addition, the State Parks Commission knows that it will have to manage the park system differently in order to sustain it in these times.

Faced with the prospect of losing tax support for parks operations, the Commission believes that user-based fees are the best and fairest option we have to operate the park system, because it relies upon those who use the parks to pay for them. We are optimistic that this could support the system. We are already deeply involved in the Governor’s reform initiative and are working together with other natural resource agencies to find savings and efficiencies. As part of this effort, State Parks, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and Department of Natural Resources are exploring the idea of charging a reasonable fee for a single permit that would provide access to state parks and recreation lands.

If the Legislature includes the permit/fee in its final budget this spring, one model being considered would enable vehicle owners to buy their recreation permit at reduced cost when they renew their vehicle license tabs through the Department of Licensing. Without the permit/ fee in the next biennium, parks all over the state could be reduced to zero service.

While we wait for things to unfold this legislative session, your donations are still very much needed to help us keep operating through the current budget period and into the next.

For more information about the donation program and current charts showing monthly donation levels, visit www.parks.wa.gov/donations/ and public comments are always welcome via e-mail to public.information@parks.wa.gov. We will provide you with periodic updates on the State Parks budget and parks services.

Thank you for your support,

Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission